The Last Supper

Before crossing the Gulf, the crew of the boats Still Waters 2, Aurora,
Chip Ahoy, Compass Rose and Michigan Girl met for a "Last Supper."

Sunspot Baby departed with other boats leaving the morning prior to our crossing departure date. We left in a group of five. Compass Rose split from the group, as they had a different destination.

Danta Claus

Danta Claus is coming to town (Carrabelle, FL).  Rudolf is leading the way.

Hurricane Michael Damage

While we're in Carrabelle, FL, waiting for a good weather window to cross the Gulf, we thought we'd share some pictures to give you a sense of what a hurricane can do (Hurricane Michael in this instance).

This was a guide and reference into the harbor. Steer to the sunken sailboat. Then steer away.

Damage in the harbor at Carrabelle, FL.

Hurricane Micheal damaged this beautiful Beneteau 60 sailboat.

The galley sink or the head's sink is hanging out of a hole in the hull. Hurricane Micheal smashed the boat into a piling and caused the hole. The boat quickly sunk. It is a total loss. It will be busted up into small pieces and thrown into a dumpster and hauled to the landfill. Here's a close-up:

Wrecked Beneteau 60.

It’s not funny but the name fits the boat now more than ever.

Where's the Gammel Dansk?

Can you find our Nordic tug Gammel Dansk, in the sea of BIG BOATS?

Barge in GICW

Passing a barge hauling gravel and rocks in this narrow passage.

Gulf Intra Coastal Waterway!

We crossed the Mobile Bay and into the GICW (Gulf Intra Coastal Waterway), where Dolphins played in front of our boat.

This picture shows us headed to The Wharf Marina at Gulf Shores
Orange Beach, Alabama. 

Very peaceful calm waters, until we meet a barge in this narrow passage. We have traveled 1158 river miles. Our river travels are completed as we are in salt water for the first time since Being hauled out at Anacortes, Washington. We have been attentive dodging logs branches and debris in the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, the Tennessee TomBigbee and the Black Warrior Rivers.  Whew!! Mission accomplished. Our next river travel will be entering the Hudson River in New York City.   We will remember and appreciate the calm waters and sunshine of the Alabama Gulf Coast. 
It is 71 degrees and our only dilemma is whether to wear
regular footwear or flip flops.

Bobby's Fish Camp

We have arrived at Bobby’s Fish Camp...

 ...on the Tennessee TomBigbee Waterway at mile marker 119
near Silas, Alabama.

Just a Few Feet Down

This photo is from a lock chamber on the Black Warrior TomBigbee Waterway -- at the Coffeeville Lock and Dam in Coffeeville, Alabama. 

The drop was only 63 feet. The John C. Stennis lock in Columbus, Mississippi, on the Tennessee-TomBigbee Waterway was 86 foot drop.   

Rotten Cotton -- Demopolis, Alabama

Once those cotton balls get rotten,
you can’t pick very much cotton.

Cotton has been picked, but some of the cotton fell off the stems and was not harvested. There must be enough on the ground for a couple of white shirts or perhaps one bed sheet. 

Annie O -- From Seattle!

You never know what you can run into in Demopolis, Alabama. 

We have not seen the owners yet, but are on the lookout. It will be great to talk to them about the Seahawks, Huskies and fish & chips at Ivar’s.

Whiteout Blues

Woke up this morning with whiteout blues.
The Tom Bevil Lock and Dam is out there somewhere. 

We will wait until the fog lifts. Temperatures expected to be 68 degrees and sunny. We will have to wait. Our Minnesota friends visiting Florida called to tell us the temperature was 87 degrees and that we are not moving fast enough.  Our boat is called the “Turtle boat” -- because we are slow. We also pay homage to Turtles by wearing their turtle colors -- GREEN.
We all know how that fabled race went, Aesop. 

We Give Thanks for YOU!

Please read at your Thanksgiving.
From Mary and Dan and Tori, the Seeing Eye Dog,
in Columbus, Mississippi

Garden Meditation 

by Rev. Max Coots 

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people.

For children who are our second planting, and though they grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where their roots are.

Let us give thanks;

For generous friends...with hearts...and smiles as bright as their blossoms;

For feisty friends, as tart as apples;

For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us that we've had them;

For crotchety friends, sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;

For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn, and the others, as plain as potatoes and so good for you;

For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes;

And serious friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini and who, like parsnips, can be counted on to see you through the winter;

For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time, and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;

For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;

And finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens past that have been harvested, but who fed us in their times that we might have life thereafter.

For all these we give thanks. 

Tennessee Williams House

The Gammel Dansk crew took a break while at the Columbus Marina
in Columbus, Mississippi. 

We stopped at the home of Thomas Lanier Williams, also known as Tennessee Williams. He was a genius writer but lived a very turbulent life. He wrote the Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire. All three were turned into films and productions for the stage. Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor and Burl Ives starred in the movie version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Marlon Brando, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter in A Streetcar Named Desire. Dan shouted mimicking Marlon Brando:  STELLA! STELLA!

Elvis Presley at 13

Statue of a young Elvis Presley at 13 years old. 

He carried his guitar to school everyday. We toured his childhood
northland home in Tupelo, Mississippi. 

Pittsburg Landing

This area was referred to as Pittsburg Landing
by the Confederates during the Civil War.

The Union called it Shiloh because it was near a church called Shiloh. The confederate forces came up the Tennessee River from Corinth, Mississippi, to Pittsburg Landing. The Confederate forces numbered 48,000 and the Union 49,000 -- and reinforced by 18,000 Union soldiers. 26,000 men died in the battle. The Union won and Confederate General Johnston was killed in battle.

One of the Union Generals was considered to be insane. He gained notoriety and controversy later in the war. He was William Tecumseh Sherman, who is famous or infamous for his scorched earth March to the Sea -- burning and destroying everything in his path. Remember Charlotte in Gone with the Wind? "Oh Tara is burning, Oh Rhett, Atlanta is burning....
Well Charlotte, frankly I don’t give a damn!"

We saw many Dixie or Confederate flags flying in this area of Tennessee. Perhaps because it was close to Veterans Day.